Dr. Laura Berman and husband Samuel Chapman are revealing just how deeply their late son’s passing has affected them.
Just last month, the couple’s 16-year-old boy Sammy died after a drug overdose. And on last week’s episode of the True Crime Daily podcast, Chapman said he’s still “dealing with terrible PTSD” from the tragedy.
Chapman said he found his late son “on his back, having aspirated his own vomit.” “That’s what we walked in on,” he said. “[I] had to resuscitate my own son, or at least try to, until the paramedics got here … no one should have to go through that.”
Sammy died just last month after overdosing on Fentanyl-laced Xanax which he had purchased from a dealer who contacted him over Snapchat.
Chapman said their two older sons, Ethan and Jackson, are “not that great” after losing their brother.
“One of them gets pretty nervous and is worried about accidentally dying, because his brother did, and the other one is getting triggered by all of the murder you see on TV,” he said, noting that he similarly experiences those same feelings.
That being said, Champan also says he believes that these feelings are to be expected after such loss.
“There’s nothing for it except time and feeling your feelings,” he said. “I think if there weren’t some PTSD and some lingering nervousness, sadness and anger, we wouldn’t be human.”
Last month during in an interview on the Today show last month, Berman, who hosts In the Bedroom with Dr. Laura Berman, revealed her entire reason for going public with her story was to help prevent other parents from losing their children in the same way.
“All I was thinking about is that this couldn’t happen again,” she shared. “I was so furious and helpless.”
“When they see our son and can relate to him and see what happened to him, maybe it will sink in,” Berman added. “And if it helps one kid, it’s worth it.”